For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. Psalm 103:11
How easy it is to let these words pass by. How easy to speak them without really absorbing their meaning. As high as the heavens are above the earth—that is high! And that is the measure of God’s love for those who belong to Him.
There was a time when I really grappled with the truth of this statement. There was a time when I questioned God’s love for me. Like David, I asked, “Who am I?” that you should love me? Of course, in 2 Samuel 7:18 David asks this question from faith. But there was a time when I asked this question out of disbelief. It was not out of a sense of awe for God’s love, it was out of a deep concern that He could never love someone like me.
However, God was patient with me. And over a matter of years, He showed me that His love was real and that it was not conditioned on my goodness, my abilities, my worthiness. To the contrary, as we read in the very next verse of this psalm, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). And this is really the point of the cross. I am not good enough! I need a Savior. Jesus died to pay for our sins. This is how God effectively “removed our transgressions from us.”
For some reason, we find it difficult to grasp this truth. We tend to go in one of two directions. Either we are dogged by the sense that we are still not good enough. Or we try to tell ourselves and everyone else, like Stuart Smalley, “I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!” Of course, the truth is, no one is good enough—except Jesus. And that is why He was able to pay for our sins. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Scripture is so clear on this point. It is so evident that we cannot earn God’s approval. And yet, we continue to hold onto our works as if we can add something to what Jesus has done. In truth, this issue was at the crux of the reformation. I wonder how much of the darkness of the dark ages stemmed from this false notion of our ability to earn God’s approval. Thankfully, the reformation shed light on the Gospel of God’s grace.
However, I was in need of reformation in my own heart. I was in need of understanding the depth of God’s love. I was in need of embracing the reality that I am unworthy, in and of myself, but that my true worth is found in Christ. Jesus loves me and gave Himself for me—what greater source of worth could a person find?
It took quite some time, but God slowly opened my eyes to the reality of His love. And I think at the heart of the opening of my eyes was the eventual understanding that the love of God is the love of a Father for His children. It was really about the time of the birth of our first child that this point was most powerfully brought home. When I saw my newborn son, I was overwhelmed with love for him—an experience that was repeated with the birth of my daughter. But what these experiences caused me to understand was the depth of the love a father has for his children. And it was not conditioned on what they could or could not do. Newborn infants cannot do anything. And yet, I loved them with a love that was profound.
Again and again in Scripture, this is the kind of love God says He has for us. And this is what we see in the very next verse of Psalm 103, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:13). It is a father’s compassion that we see in the heavenly Father. It is this deep, unconditional love that the Father has for His children.
I am glad to say that God brought me through that great time of questioning so many years ago. And yet, even so, I still need to pause when I come across words like those found in Psalm 103:11. In some ways, I believe I have only scratched the surface of understanding the deep, deep love of God. Thankfully, God keeps teaching and keeps leading in spite of our inability to understand. For, as the hymnist puts it, God’s love is a love that will not let me go.
O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be. –George Matheson
In His Love, Pastor Dan